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Transgender inmate has taxpayer-funded mammogram
My Fox Boston ^ | April 15, 2010 | Michele

Posted on 04/16/2010 10:06:06 AM PDT by NYer


Michelle (formerly Robert) Kosilek

(FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - A cross-dressing Massachusetts inmate who murdered his wife and has spent the last decade suing the Department of Correction for access to a sex change operation had a taxpayer funded mammogram this week, Fox 25 has learned.

Robert Kosilek – who sued for the right to change his name to Michelle in 1993, the year that he began his expensive court battle to force taxpayers to foot the bill for a sex change operation – has been receiving hormone injections and electrolysis hair removal as an inmate at MCI-Norfolk.

Those hormone treatments helped Kosilek develop breasts and the con has been wearing a bra in the all-male Massachusetts prison, DOC officials said.

On April 13, Kosilek, 59, was transported from the prison to the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Boston for an appointment in the radiology department. There he was given a routine mammogram before he was returned to the prison at noon, according to transportation documents obtained by Fox 25.

DOC spokeswoman Diane Wiffin would not comment on Kosilek citing CORI restrictions. But she did release a statement saying:

“The DOC's responsibility is care and custody of inmates, including health care. Clinical indications for mammograms are not gender specific. If a mammogram is recommended by a physician for a male inmate, one would be provided where medically appropriate, as determined by the DOC's medical service provider,” Wiffin wrote.

Wiffin said that the cost of the hormone and hair removal treatments that have been issued – at taxpayer expense – to Kosilek cannot be released under Massachusetts CORI restrictions. Wiffin said that every inmate is issued clothing including three pairs of elastic pants; one sweatshirt; five t-shirts; five undershorts; five pairs of socks; one pair of sneakers; and a winter jacket.

Kosilek’s wardrobe includes five bras that cost $2.17 each, DOC officials said. He is also issued “some makeup,’’ officials have acknowledged.

Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson, who launched a legal battle of his own for the right to charge inmates $5 a day for their incarceration, said a mammogram for a male inmate is “another example of law-abiding citizens standing at the back of the line.”

“This is a killer who wants to be a girl, a man who murdered his wife, who has access to better health care than citizens who are paying for his incarceration…not only for his incarceration but mammograms and hair removal,’’ Hodgson said. “This is exactly what is wrong with our government. “

Hodgson said that Kosilek threatened to sue him when he was jailed in Bristol County.

“He wanted to sue because we refused to call him Michelle,’’ Hodgson said. “What’s next? Someone in prison decides to be a dog and we have to start barking to him?”

US District Court Judge Mark Wolf has not ruled on whether the state should pay anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 for the sex change operation. Wolf ruled in 2002 that Kosilek was entitled to treatment for gender identity disorder, but stopped short of ordering taxpayer-funded surgery. Kosilek sued again in 2005. Prison officials oppose Kosilek's request for surgery.

Michelle Kosilek was an addiction counselor named Robert Kosilek, when he was convicted of killing his wife, Cheryl. Kosilek dumped the body in a car outside a local shopping mall. Kosilek went missing after the murder, but ultimately was captured in New Rochelle, N.Y.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: moralabsolutes; taxes; transsexual
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1 posted on 04/16/2010 10:06:06 AM PDT by NYer
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To: wagglebee; little jeremiah

Taxpayer dollars at work.


2 posted on 04/16/2010 10:07:00 AM PDT by NYer ("Where Peter is, there is the Church." - St. Ambrose of Milan)
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To: NYer
I think a preemptive double mastectomy should be performed.


3 posted on 04/16/2010 10:09:08 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: NYer

"Well, sometimes I get them menstrual cramps real hard."

4 posted on 04/16/2010 10:12:16 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Paleo Conservative

Do women in prison who pretend to be men, demand to get Prostrate screenings? Even though, because they are women, they don’t have a prostrate? What woman was delayed screening so that this mental case could waste a hospital’s time and assets?


5 posted on 04/16/2010 10:12:44 AM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: NYer

Fake Indian Ward Churchill - separated at birth ...........

6 posted on 04/16/2010 10:13:58 AM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: NYer

Actually, all this guy’s distorted issues aside, men can get breast cancer, so as you get older, it’s not a bad idea to have one done every 4-5 years just in case. The hormone treatment probably increases that risk, so I’d rather have a couple of hundred bucks go to screening tests (I bet the regular male inmates do get prostate screens on the taxpayer dime too), than have to pay to treat advanced cancer.


7 posted on 04/16/2010 10:15:53 AM PDT by Little Pig (Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.)
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To: NYer

Now doesn't this guy's photo and story just scream, "DEMOCRAT!"?



8 posted on 04/16/2010 10:16:40 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Dissent is Racism)
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To: NYer

Three cheers for Tom Hodgson.


9 posted on 04/16/2010 10:16:46 AM PDT by firebrand
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To: massgopguy

Only apostates can get state provided prostate exams while prostrate.


10 posted on 04/16/2010 10:18:44 AM PDT by posterchild (Endowed by my Creator with certain unalienable rights.)
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To: NYer

I am (in this case definitely thankfully) not a female, but I’ve heard from my dear old mom about the joys of that particular procedure, and if he’s dumb enough to want to have his boobs squeezed like that...God bless him. I’m just happy they don’t look for testicular cancer the same way.


11 posted on 04/16/2010 10:20:53 AM PDT by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich! (What'd I say?))
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To: NYer
US District Court Judge Mark Wolf has not ruled on whether the state should pay anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 for the sex change operation. Wolf ruled in 2002 that Kosilek was entitled to treatment for gender identity disorder, but stopped short of ordering taxpayer-funded surgery. Kosilek sued again in 2005. Prison officials oppose Kosilek's request for surgery.

a ray of hope

12 posted on 04/16/2010 10:24:28 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB ("The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants"-Albert Camus)
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To: Paleo Conservative

That’s beautiful, is it a Randall?


13 posted on 04/16/2010 10:25:21 AM PDT by brushcop (SFC Sallie, CPL Long, LTHarris, SSG Brown, PVT Simmons KIA OIF lll&V, they died for you, honor them)
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To: NYer

The silly shit that goes on.... so they are so comfortable in jail that they can think about weither they want boobs or not? This is ridiculous!!!!


14 posted on 04/16/2010 10:25:57 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: RichInOC

Amen to that, brother!!!!!


15 posted on 04/16/2010 10:37:24 AM PDT by dools007
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

I think he likes prison - maybe his boyfriend wants him to get bigger boobs


16 posted on 04/16/2010 10:38:41 AM PDT by edcoil (If I had 1 cent for every dollar the government saved, Bill Gates and I would be friends.)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

I bet he’s a big hit with the rest of the inmates. And the prison guards like it because the freak keeeps his/her prison buddies inmates docile. A neat solution for conjugal visiting. The guy can’t even get pregnant.


17 posted on 04/16/2010 10:40:15 AM PDT by dools007
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To: NYer

Not defending this kook, but my first cousin (all MALE) died of breast cancer. Though not as common in men, breast cancer is not just a female disease.


18 posted on 04/16/2010 10:47:09 AM PDT by faucetman (Just the facts ma'am, just the facts)
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To: dools007

You may be on to something there. The guards would probably welcome a few more like him. But the point is...jail isn’t supposed to be disneyland.


19 posted on 04/16/2010 10:54:05 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: Lazamataz

Oh, laz... Your presence is requested for an “I’d hit it” post.


20 posted on 04/16/2010 11:13:01 AM PDT by raybbr (Someone who invades another country is NOT an immigrant - illegal or otherwise.)
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